Short For Chameleon

Paperback | March 7, 2017

Pricing and Purchase Info

$16.45 online

$17.99list pricesave 8%

Earn 82 plum® points

Prices and offers may vary in store

Quantity:

In stock online

Ships free on orders over $25

Available in stores

about

Embarrassed by your brother? Estranged from your uncle? Then you might need some help from Almost Family Surrogate Agency. Cam Redden and his dad are rent-a-relatives, available for hire to anyone looking to upgrade.

Cam’s job is all about being whoever other people want him to be. Then two new clients come along. Albertina is an old lady with a big mouth, a bigger wig and a serious mission. Raylene is a beautiful girl with a nose ring, a wonky eye and a painful secret. Now to get to the bottom of the tragic mysteries that fuel them both, Cam may finally have to be himself.

Educational/Developmental Value:

Durability:

Hours of Play:

Thank you. Your review has been submitted and will appear here shortly.

Reviews

Rated 2 out of
5 by
Pedler3 from
Meh.This book has a great premise, great characters, and is a decent story until half way when the whole story starts to stink. Short for chameleon even leaves the story off with nothing being accomplished. Overall it needs improvement.

Date published: 2018-07-22

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Sylvia_McNicoll from
Vicki Grant Does it again!Snappy dialogue, quirky characters, outlandish premise--all Vicki Grant's claim to fame. You'll love it in Short for Chameleon too.

Date published: 2018-01-15

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Adrienne from
Weird, Funny and EntertainingI am pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Short For Chameleon and how hilarious it is at times. Vicki Grant keeps the story short and sweet and adds just the right amount of quirkiness to each character. The main character Cam works for his Father's business "Almost Family Surrogate Agency". The business employs people to pretend to be relatives of clients who are willing to pay to have fake relatives for social obligations. As a result, Cam is constantly finding himself in unusual situations. I think teens and young adults would find this novel engaging, funny and entertaining. I only hope that there is more to come from Cam and his new friend Raylene.
I also want to thank GoodReads, Vicki Grant and the publisher HarperTrophyCanada for a free copy of this book.

Date published: 2017-07-17

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Adrienne from
Hilarious and EntertainingI am pleasantly surprised at how much I liked <b> Short For Chameleon </b> and how humorous it is at times. Vicki Grant keeps the story short and sweet and adds just the right amount of quirkiness to each character. The main character Cam works for his Father's business "Almost Family Surrogate Agency". The business employs people to pretend to be relatives of clients who are willing to pay to have fake relatives for social obligations. As a result, Cam is constantly finding himself in unusual situations. I think teens and young adults would find this novel engaging, funny and entertaining. I only hope that there is more to come from Cam and his new friend Raylene.
I also want to thank GoodReads, Vicki Grant and the publisher HarperTrophyCanada for a free copy of this book.

Date published: 2017-06-07

Rated 5 out of
5 by
Sharpquilter from
I loved this book, I want to read it again for the very first timeI love this story. It's premise of rent-a-relative is totally unique and opens up the plot to all sorts of antics. Honestly, haven't we all wished we could do that at times in our lives, rent a relative to replace one that we were less then enamoured with.
It is also filled with quirky characters starting with the ever adaptable dad, Will Redden. With no acting jobs at hand, he started the Almost Family Surrogate Agency. Once Albertina, the feisty senior, encountered Will, she took over every scene and commanded my attention. How could I not love her, with her over the top hair, make-up and personality. I can easily imagine her righting wrongs sort of like a Superhero for those who've been taken advantage of.
Cam Redden is a most remarkable young man. He's spent his life playing one role after another. A son for one client and then a grandson for the next. When he meets Raylene, he finally has to figure out how to be himself. With all the experience has had reading people, she is the one person he can not understand.
Together, Cam, Albertina and Raylene make a formidable team. They almost seem like the family none of them has.
Short for Chameleon is a fun story that will have you eagerly flipping pages to find out what happens next but at the same time wishing that that the story wouldn't end. This is the first book that I have read by author Vicki Grant and it won't be my last.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from Indigo Books and Music in exchange for an honest review.
#IndigoEmployee

Date published: 2017-04-15

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Catie from
Great book! Nice escape from cliched live stories.Short for Chameleon was a really well done book, perfect for the transitioning stage where someone is just too old for young readers fiction, but isn’t ready for the mushy love stories that abound in teen fiction. The characters were realistic - I really dig books in which the characters are three dimensional in such a way that it’s not cliched. Like, in a lot of books it will be like the main character is written as perfect and then some flaws are added to make them more realistic. In Short for Chameleon, Cam, the main character, wasn’t written like that at all. When you first get introduced to him, he’s pretending to be sad at a funeral and you don’t understand why you like him but you just sort of do. I think that it has something to do with the author’s voice - she has a way of writing that’s very matter of fact and funny at the same time. I also really liked Rayleen, and though it did seem at first that she was just a love interest, she is actually really sweet and also adventurous too.
However, while Short for Chameleon was a fun, lighthearted novel, one thing that I missed was the emotional connection to the characters. For example, when (spoiler!) one of the main characters die, I wasn’t really sad - I just wasn’t really connected enough to her. I’m normally a very emotional reader, and I cry really easily while reading, but I just wasn’t connected enough to the characters.
A summary:
Reread value: 8/10 (It’s a novel I will come back to, but it’s just kind of short)
Unique points: 9/10 (Totally cool pretense - Almost Family!)
Positive Examples: 7/10 (Nice characters, but Rayleen is kind of terrible to Cam sometimes. However, overall theme of catching real life bad guys is cool)
Diversity: 4/10 (No LGBT characters, no POC main characters)
Character Believability: 10/10
Solid book!! The missed emotional connection isn’t really a big deal - would recommend to 10 - 12 year olds.

Date published: 2017-03-12

Rated 4 out of
5 by
Sarah from
Wonderful!This book makes me wish I could send things back in time, because teenage!me would have been all over it. The wacky premise, the awesome characters, there is so much to love here.

Date published: 2017-03-06

Editorial Reviews

“A near perfect book. It bursts with a unique voice and a delightfully surprising plot.”